Adjustable body supporting assemblies such as positioning beds, adjustable Hospital-type beds and adjustable chairs have been known serving for various positioning of an occupant, but the art was singularely lacking assemblies providing for the separate positioning of parallel limbs at different angles or elevations. Another, and perhaps even more important factor, for which so far hardly any provision were made, is to provide a body resting on such assembly with certain movements which would be beneficial to the occupants health or improvement, but for which the person itself has no physical ability.
It has been a long established fact, that walking is very healthy and for certain diseases constitutes a rehabilitating factor, such as in the case of heart related afflictions where a proper movement of leg or knee increases the action of the hearts ventricles, providing for better breathing. However when persons are bedridden or physically not able to walk, providing a mechanically operated simulated walking movement to the lower body, would serve as the nearest available substitute for regular walking, and contribute to the rehabilitation or the prolongation of a persons life. Using a similar lowerbody movement for hospital patients combined with a preset programmed resistance would increase the use of knee and leg muscles and at least partly eliminate the weakening of these muscles, and thus in effect shorten hospitalisationtime, as in many cases patients feeling relatively well, have to remain in hospital because of their inability to walk resulting from their unused and weakened knee and leg muscles.
Another important factor was the absence of an adjustable movement of the leg and knee supports in regard to each other, and in relation to an middle support serving the posterior of an occupant, by one single power-means such as an screw-type motor. Usually the power-means served to elevate the knee support and the pivotally connected leg support attached to said knee support was raised in parallelogram fashion by means of pivotally mounted connecting arms, connecting said leg support for a horizontal movement to a supporting frame. Or as in the form of the above quoted applications the leg support was adjusted by a separate power means to provide a movement in relation to the knee support. Also it was not known to provide variable movements of the whole assembly by a single power stroke or pull, including a movement of the extending body supporting assembly from a wall, to save space.
Body supporting assemblies serving for persons which are either to handicapped to go by themselves to the bathroom, or persons which either temporarily or permanently are to sick or weak to go by themselves, need to perform their elementary needs in the bed, therefore body supporting assemblies serving for such persons must provide a remote controlled means, such as a built in toilet. While such devices were previously described and claimed, it has been found that an improved system could be designed to facilitate easier use and better operation. One of them is providing the upper part of the toilet with a deflector-type addition to prevent spilling from a forward directed stream by male occupants. Another is reducing the "seat" part, as actually the occupant remains seated on the bed and only needs a slit-type opening to perform his needs, in which case the upper part of the toilet is formed by the said deflector as part of an elongated ring, which is raised into the mattress opening. Another important need is to provide this said upper part as an disposable item, so that it can be replaced when dirtied or whenever a new patient is placed on said bed. Also it has been found that for some persons a easy recognizable positioning means is required to prevent dirtying of the linen. A new disposable upper part made of material such as hardened foam would not endanger the patient while coming up, but the deflector part extending above the mattress would serve a positioning means.